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John Grant, Heaven, WC2

Having made the most dazzling album of 2010 in Queen of Denmark, John Grant has remodelled his sound on the follow-up, Pale Green Ghosts. The former was soaked in the radiant FM melodies of Grant’s Seventies childhood, but the latter was informed by the austere synthesizers of his Eighties adolescence. It’s a change of gear for the former Czars frontman, though his humour and candour remain pin-sharp.

The darker palette was suited to his recent upheavals. The 44-year-old Coloradan has rarely been a happy bunny, growing up gay in an intolerant Methodist household, his adult years blighted by addiction and depression. But the new LP coincided with a break-up and the discovery that he was HIV positive. So you could forgive Grant for moroseness, but…

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